Critics have hailed Wes Anderson\u2019s star-studded new film Asteroid City as \u201cstylish\u201d but lacking in substance.<\/p>\n
The sci-fi homage sees a junior stargazer convention disrupted by world-changing events.<\/p>\n
A bus-load of its stars, including Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson, were in orbit around the film\u2019s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday<\/p>\n
Oscar-winner actor Hanks walked the red carpet with his wife, actress and producer Rita Wilson.<\/p>\n
Writing on Instagram later, Wilson defended Hanks\u00a0after fans questioned whether he had become angry\u00a0on the red carpet, clarifying that her actor husband had only been asking for directions and had struggled to hear the Cannes staff member\u2019s answer.<\/p>\n
Black Widow star Johansson, meanwhile, was there with her husband \u2013 Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost.<\/p>\n
\u2018Visually dazzling\u2019<\/h2>\n
Asteroid City sees Johansson lead an ensemble cast of Hollywood royalty, including Hanks and Margot Robbie \u2013 both newcomers to Anderson\u2019s celluloid world \u2013 Jason Schwartzman and Tilda Swinton.<\/p>\n
The film also features Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and Steve Carell, who stepped in for Anderson-favourite Bill Murray after he caught Covid days before they started filming.<\/p>\n
Johansson plays a 1950s movie icon \u2013 think Bette Davis \u2013 in the story set in a fictional American desert town, where a group of child geniuses are gathered for a science competition that is interrupted by an alien visitor which leaves them locked up in quarantine.<\/p>\n
Anderson is best-known for directing films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom.<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s Peter Bradshaw awarded\u00a0the film four stars, describing it as an \u201cexhilarating triumph of pure style\u201d which \u201cleans nicely into its own artificiality, and every delicious, microscopic detail is a delight\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAsteroid City\u2019s eccentricity, its elegance, its gaiety, and its sheer profusion of detail within the tableau frame make it such a pleasure,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, too, does its dapper styling of classic American pop culture. With every new shot, your eyes dart around the screen, grabbing at all the painterly little jokes and embellishments, each getting a micro-laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cAs ever, there is little or no emotional content, despite the ostensible subject of grief. The movie rattles cleverly and exhilaratingly along, adroitly absorbing the implications of pathos and loneliness without allowing itself to slow down.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is tempting to consider this savant blankness as some kind of symptom, but I really don\u2019t think so: it is the expression of style. And what style it is.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times\u2019 Ed Potton was similarly impressed,\u00a0also awarding four stars while comparing Anderson\u2019s latest work to that of another respected US filmmaker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks ravishing, as usual: blue Cadillacs against orange desert, swivelling satellite dishes, mushroom clouds from nuclear tests rising silently on the horizon,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are subtle departures, though: fantastical encounters (I\u2019ll say no more) and an air of confounding surreality that feels new. This is Anderson filtered through the lens of David Lynch minus the horror, or Charlie Kaufman with better tailoring.\u201d<\/p>\n Variety\u2019s Owen Gleiberman agreed\u00a0the film was indeed \u201cvisually dazzling\u201d but felt it was also \u201cdramatically inert\u201d.<\/p>\n He said it \u201cpresents itself as a stylized meditation on grief, though it\u2019s not the kind that anyone\u2019s going to shed a tear over\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAsteroid City looks smashing, but as a movie it\u2019s for Anderson die-hards only, and maybe not even too many of them,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n There were similar reservations from\u00a0from the Hollywood Reporter\u2019s David Rooney.\u00a0He noted how, as always with Anderson movies, \u201cthe craft elements are impeccable\u201d and that \u201cevery actor commits 100% to the director\u2019s vision, like oddball figurines in a miniature toy world\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trouble is there\u2019s just not enough here to fully engage the viewer beyond the trademark aesthetics \u2013 no emotional pull or lingering feeling and too few genuine laughs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a movie so curiously weightless it seems awfully pleased with itself, its moments of magic evaporating almost instantaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Director](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/_129851202_a3a681e2affcdad0531a4edd5cdd81ed44f4fe50.jpg\" "\\"Asteroid")
![\"Scarlett](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/_129851205_02.jpg\" "\\"Asteroid")
![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/_129851209_04.jpg\" "\\"Asteroid")